Tourism. Trends. Tactics. Technology.

February 14, 2019

The State of Indiana has never meaningfully invested in promoting itself as a destination...which always struck me as odd. After all, they border a State that does...and continues to enjoy national recognition from one of the most successful tourism campaigns in history. One would think that the competitive juices would flow a bit more abundantly.

But, no. Indiana invents less than $5 million a year to invite visitors, investors and potential residents to consider their sensational destination. A head-scratcher, to be sure.

The bill doesn't allocate more revenue (naturally) but could open the way for the new agency to develop new revenue streams.

My only question: Was it a unanimous vote because the concept is brilliant...or because the House is tired of being accused of not understanding the crucial importance of destination marketing on a State's economy and just wanted to wash its hands of the whole affair?

February 12, 2019

I know I'm too close to this debate, having fought this battle in Wisconsin years ago (and consulted other States over the years)...but, honestly, it's a pretty black and white question.

When the majority of parents (and, in many cases, teachers) support a post-Labor Day School Start AND it benefits the State's economy...what is left to say? Local control zealots (who are in the distinct minority) cry out that we are sacrificing our children's education to benefit tourism businesses...but not a single study has shown that Post Labor Day School starts result in lower test scores. Indeed, here in Wisconsin, the schools that started post-Labor Day scored higher than those that started school in August before we legislated a uniform start date.

Last week, Governor Hogan opined, "inexplicably, they are attempting to reverse this policy, but we simply cannot and we will not allow misguided and misinformed legislatorsand special interest groups to turn back the clock and ignore the will of the people of Maryland."

Opposition party Senator Paul Pinsky questioned why people are afraid to give local officials a choice.

Which I find delightfully absurd. State politicians always think they are smarter than local officials...except on this issue.

Hey, Paul? It's time to look out for the State's economy AND the interests of the electorate...and not the School Board Association lobby.

February 05, 2019

Among the top 14 international long-haul destinations around the world, only one (Turkey) performed worse than the U.S. from 2015-2017. Tourism Economics President Adam Sacks avoided the over-used phrase "perfect storm" as he coined an even better one: "a triad of factors" impacting America's lackluster performance.

"The global economy is slowing, most currencies have weakened against the dollar and U.S. policy and rhetoric have damaged sentiment. We see the latter two to be the prevailing factors over the past two years," he added. And, digging deeper into the country-by-country results really highlights how negative perceptions toward the U.S. are evident in significant travel declines from the Middle East, China and Germany. Indeed, growth in inbound travel from China completely stalled in 2018, after averaging an annual growth rate of over 20% for the past decade.

January 16, 2019

I can't remember the first time I said the words, "it's not just about heads in beds." Hard to believe, but its likely been 15 years...maybe 20.

It wasn't because I was prescient. It was because I was given the gift of working for a Destination Marketing Organization that chose to dive into leading a community-wide effort to build a Frank Lloyd Wright designed Convention Center. That wasn't what DMOs did in the '90s. But, I knew that what we accomplished in Madison was the future for DMOs.

Today, the most effective and innovative DMOs are intimately engaged in destination, community and economic development. And, as we suggested last month in the Z-News, hunger and homelessness need to be next on our agenda.

January 14, 2019

As we've noted previously, Destinations International's white paper on The New Tourism Lexicon is a critical guide on how those of us in the Destination Marketing space should explain our work and defend against unsophisticated and agenda-fueled attacks.

Over the past couple weeks, I've been picking up on a new tactic being used by those that seek to redirect tourism taxes to other uses. Instead of referring to a DMO's annual budget, they are beginning to utilize cumulative totals to encourage outrage among a populace that can be goaded into anger over the most minor of slights.

While I've seen it in no less than 5 destinations over the past three months, I'll direct you to Stillwater OK, where the City has recently put its Destination Marketing contract up for RFQ. After suffering the slings and arrows of community discontent with that decision, the Mayor there wrote an op-ed piece to defend the City's action. And, rather than saying that the City invests an annual sum each year into its award-winning DMO, he doubles down and says "Visit Stillwater has received more than $3.5 million in fees to provide marketing services (at least he didn't say "given," which we normally see).

This is an intentional move on the part of public officials to cause Joe and Jill Public to respond, "Say what? The City is giving an organization millions of dollars for something I don't care about?" Joe and Jill wouldn't be outraged at $800,000...but millions? Now you have their attention.

If critics begin quoting cumulative numbers in your town, your response need be swift and direct. And, the necessity to establish more effective ROI measurements has never been more immediate.

January 07, 2019

Wisconsin taxpayers are on the hook for $4.5 billion to bring a plant to the Badger State that may employ 13,000. New York City promised $3 billion to Amazon to get half of its HQ2. The arms race shows no sign of slowing...that is unless Mayors and Governors begin to more carefully judge the public blowback to such subsidies on their own tenure.

January 03, 2019

For the past decade, news outlets across the land have doubled down on the old adage of "if it bleeds, it leads." In the era of Facebook, stories about crime became delectable clickbait, driving advertising revenue. Nevermind how it positioned a community on a global stage that could now read articles from anywhere in the world. And, nevermind the damage that was done to a community's image in the economic development space. Stories about crime equaled short-term revenue to the media highlighting it.

December 12, 2018

For every really cool story in DMO-land (like yesterday's)...there are the bone-headed, the politically devious and the sensationally unsophisticated tales that make one wanna scream.

One of the latter occurred last week when the York County SC Council voted to purchase 1,900 acres for a recreation site along the Catawba River for $21 million. Part of the funding package being proposed will see the budget of the Destination Marketing Organization there slashed by 43%.

Now, one must always be cautious when working off of media reports. There could be an agenda on the part of the writer. The reporter could be clueless as to what they are hearing. But, what I see in this story is purposeful political misdirection and a calculated belief that the State laws restricting the use of Tourism-related taxes can be bent to the Council's will.

If you want to go down the rabbit hole and read the sad tale, your links are here (the DMO issue) and here (the residents' take).

But, here's the Cliff Notes version: The land is being purchased for conservation purposes. That does not qualify it for Tourism Taxes.

1,900 acres, however, is a lot of land. If thoughtfully designed, the parcel could become a tourism draw. Thus, Tourism Taxes could be utilized.

But...and, it's a big one. There are no plans for the land other than acquisition. At least not publicly shared. And, that the County does not have a Parks and Rec Department, the chance that even a part of the tract evolves into a tournament-grade sports complex appears remote. Indeed, work is already underway for a Sports Park in another part of the county.

The Assistant County Manager says, "I don't have any guilt about a drastic cut to the CVB."

December 04, 2018

We're also big fans of Rockford IL...and were before it was cool to be. We saw the spark years before the media figured it out.

Those two forces recently collided when Arnie took a misinformed swipe at Rockford, basing his opinion on a particularly cruel and absolutely unnecessary 2013 Forbes article calling the city the third most miserable place in America. Rockford's response was masterful...but Arnie clearly hadn't seen it.

November 29, 2018

OK...I may be missing something in the translation. But, this article from Travel Pulse certainly sounds like Mexico's new administration is moving ahead with shuttering the State Tourism Office and offloading tourism promotion to the country's embassies around the world.